Inside Today’s Elementary Schools: A Psychologist’s Perspective

259 Pages·2019·2.26 MB·English

by  James J. Dillon

Inside
Today’s
Elementary
Schools
A Psychologist’s Perspective
James J. Dillon
Inside Today’s Elementary Schools
James J. Dillon
Inside Today’s
Elementary Schools
A Psychologist’s Perspective
James J. Dillon
Department of Psychology
University of West Georgia
Carrollton, GA, USA
ISBN 978-3-030-23346-4 ISBN 978-3-030-23347-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23347-1
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A
cknowledgments
I would like to thank my elementary education professors, especially
Ronald S. Reigner and Rosalind Duplechain. I am also grateful to all my
supervising elementary teachers who opened their classroom doors to me
and taught me more than they will ever know. I thank Andrea Laubstein
and Isabel Tweedie who gave me countless hours of help researching this
book. I also thank all those who read and commented on my work in its
early drafts. I thank my wife Kaki and two children, Ben and Zoe, for help-
ing me to appreciate what is important in life. Mostly, I want to thank all
the little students I have had the pleasure of interviewing or teaching over
these many years. They have taught me as much or more than I taught them.
v
c
ontents
Part I Shortsighted Vision and Lopsided Staffing 1
1 The House on Sleepy Hollow Road 3
Bridges and Potholes 6
How the Book Is Organized 9
2 So Many Girls…So Few Princes 11
Some Negative Effects of the Gender Staffing Imbalance 16
References 24
3 When Am I Ever Going to Use Any of This? 27
Adventure and High Purpose 29
The Romantic Child 29
Lessons from Harry Potter 31
Industry Versus Inferiority 36
The Zombie Apocalypse 38
References 42
4 “And Then God Made School Boards” 45
The Administration 48
Total Management Mentality 53
Adversarial Posture 55
vii
viii CONTENTS
Who Becomes an Administrator? 56
Toxic Culture 57
The Good Ones 60
References 63
5 The Bottom of the Barrel? 67
Women’s Work: The Mother 68
Drill and Kill: The Sergeant 70
Just Tell Me What to Do: The Sheep 72
The Easiest Major: The Underachiever 73
Teacher Training, Where It All Begins 76
Why Should We Teach Anyway? 78
References 82
6 What to Do About These Four Things 85
Our Vision of Teachers and Schools 86
Personnel Reform 95
References 102
Part II The Wall of Separation, Administrative Bloat, and
Boundless Accommodation 103
7 Platonic Curriculum; Epicurean Society 105
Who Formulates the Standards? 107
What Are Standards Designed to Do? 109
What Is the Nature of the Standards? 111
Five Basic Problems with Current Elementary Standards 113
Three Possible Solutions 119
References 123
8 Just Wastin’ Time 125
The Different Kinds of Wasted Time 127
Where Does the Time Go? 128
CONTENTS ix
Time-Off-Task 132
Why Is so Much Time Lost? 134
How Lost Time Negatively Impacts Teacher and Student 136
References 138
9 No Child Left Behind? 143
A Brief History of Standardized Tests 145
Common Critiques 148
The Real Reason Why NCLB Caused So Much Trouble 153
Life After NCLB 158
References 162
10 I’m Five Teachers at Once! 165
What Is DI? 167
A Sympathetic Critique of DI 168
Less Noble Reasons for Using DI 178
References 182
11 The Incredible Bending School 185
Reasonable Special Education and Non-Academic Services 187
Unreasonable Special Education and Non-Academic Services 189
References 202
12 Look Not to the Stars 205
A Picture of Contemporary Parental Engagement 207
Barriers to Parental Engagement 209
Why Parental Engagement Matters 210
References 213
13 What to Do About These Six Things 215
Wall of Separation 215
Multiplying Diversions 228
References 231
x CONTENTS
Part III What to Do About All Ten Things 235
14 A New Day 237
Dealing with Fear 238
Seeing Through Ideology 240
Letting Go of the Need to Control 244
Conclusion 252
References 254
Index 257
PART I
Shortsighted Vision and
Lopsided Staffing